Vallejo's historic urban lake was built in 1871

While many people involved with the north Vallejo lake agree that the 142-year-old man-made earthen reservoir has value, the mostly city-owned asset garners little attention.

Lake Chabot, just south of Highway 37 and publicly accessible via the city's Dan Foley Park, was built as a private water supply reservoir in 1871.

When drought, infrastructure and personality problems with developer Anthony Chabot began to reduce the city's confidence in the water source, city trustees led by city leader John Frey convinced voters to approve a $250,000 bond to build the city's own municipal water system, in 1892. That was just as Chabot's federally granted water franchise expired and about four years after his death.

Lake Frey remains to this day as one of the reservoirs supplying Vallejo's water system.

Some 50 years later, Vallejo bought Lake Chabot, maintaining the reservoir as a back-up water source for another decade.

Since then, the secluded lake has served as a backdrop and occasional water skiing attraction for what is now Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. It also serves as a fishing and boating recreation site managed by the Greater Vallejo Recreation District, as well as an irrigation water source for the county and flood control measure collecting area storm water runoff.

The State Water Resources Control Board's San Pablo Basin plan rates Lake Chabot as supporting agricultural and municipal supply, cold and warm freshwater habitat, water contact and non-contact recreation, fish spawning and wildlife habitat.

Gaining notoriety

While Lake Chabot's biggest problem these days may be anonymity, it has come into the spotlight in past years for less benign reasons.

In January 1982, almost 2,000 Vallejo residents -- largely in the Lofas housing subdivision -- were evacuated due to a 100-year storm that flooded Lake Chabot and topped its spillway. A second, less devastating flood hit the city again in 1986.

Later that same year, Vallejo Sanitation and Flood Control District trustees voted to pour an estimated $5.2 million into creating a flood prevention plan and improved drainage plan for the area around Lake Chabot Dam.

Lake Chabot also has been a popular target for pointed odor jabs over the years. A 1970 Times-Herald report referred to the lake as an "ecological horror," describing an area where the water had receded becoming "dank with rotting tules and grass."

In 2003, Six Flags officials, who hosted a regular water skiing show in the water, complained of a foul-smelling algae bloom that hindered the park's water skiing program. That year, the county health department recommended visitors stay out of the water, due to unsafe levels of mildly pathogenic, microscopic material called fecal coliform.

Community benefits

Lake Chabot's history, by far, has not been confined to a rank aroma.

In March 1971, the then-state Department of Fish and Game (now Fish and Wildlife) conducted its first "fish planting" in Lake Chabot, with 2,500 rainbow trout delivered for the first time.

The event drew more than 150 people to Dan Foley Park to watch the event, according to Times-Herald reports. Today's "Fishing in the City," is an annual event partnering the state, the local Rotary club, the Greater Vallejo Recreation District and community volunteers to take advantage of the fishing opportunity.

"I think the lake has a lot of value to a community -- aesthetics, environmental, recreational," Greater Vallejo Recreation District General Manager Shane McAffee said. "It's really neat to have a lake.... (Dan Foley Park) would be just another park without it."

"Lake Chabot provides a beautiful and serene backdrop to the park, especially adjacent to the animal areas where there is a nice balance of nature and solitude," Chan said. "While the rest of the park is much more active and populated throughout the day, areas around the lake offer a calm, relaxed environment for guests."

Contact staff writer Jessica A. York at (707) 553-6834 or jyork@timesheraldonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @JYVallejo.